Marvel Comics was Right to Cut Captain America Scene from the Incredible Hulk

This week the newest Marvel movie starring the Incredible Hulk hits theaters. Internet geeks around the world are angry because in the Incredible Hulk there is one scene featuring Captain America but they won’t get to see it on the big screen because it has been cut from the movie.

Captain America if one of the most popular Marvel Comics heroes probably second only to Spider-man. It was announced earlier this year that a Captain America movie would be released in 2011 and it’s probably the most anticipated comic book movie currently. So having a Captain America cameo in the Incredible Hulk sounded like a great idea and not showing it might seem like a bad idea but Marvel has their reasons.

In the scene where Bruce Banner, Incredible Hulk’s alter ego, meets Captain America he is tired of being the monster that he has become and Bruce is contemplating suicide. There was so much footage shot for the Incredible Hulk that they cut the movie down by an entire 70 minutes and the suicide scene was one of the scenes cut.

The man in charge, Louis Letterier, decided the suicide scene was too dark and hard for children. Of course a lot of comic book geeks are in an uproar. I’m a comic book geek myself and I might be in the minority here but I totally agree with him.

Many are saying that the movie is PG-13 so a suicide scene isn’t too dark. But what people have to understand is that PG-13 doesn’t mean only kids 13 and older are allowed to watch. It simply means that kids younger than 13 have to have parent’s permission. Most parents are going to take kids even younger than 13 years old to see Incredible Hulk because they did the same thing with X-Men, Spider-man and Iron Man and there wasn’t anything children shouldn’t see in those movies.

The Harry Potter movies, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the Chronicles of Narnia movies are all PG-13 and there are kids younger than 13 years old seeing those as well. There are some movies that are PG-13 that aren’t suitable for kids, like many comedies for instance, but those are all clearly not for kids based on the trailers. The trailer for Incredible Hulk doesn’t suggest that this movie isn’t suitable for younger kids and previous Marvel movies have been fine for younger kids so there will be kids younger than 13 at the Incredible Hulk.

Others are complaining because there is a lot of fighting in Incredible Hulk and their argument is if giant creatures fighting each other is okay then why isn’t a scene where somebody only contemplates suicide. To those people I say you’re a moron. If you can’t tell the difference between two unrealistic creatures taking part in a comic book battle and a real man contemplating suicide then we are all lucky you’re not in charge of these movies. Talking to your kids about suicide is like the sex talk. Why even put those thoughts in their heads years earlier than they will already discover it?

For those that really want to see the Captain America scene you’ll either have to wait until the DVD or see the scene online. Louis Letterier hinted the scene would be put on the internet but I have a feeling it will make its way to the internet even if they don’t want it to.